Phuket airport to Khao Lak is about 82km and takes around an hour and a half: north on Highway 402, over the Sarasin Bridge onto the mainland, then north on Highway 4. Carrying on to Khao Sok adds roughly another 90km and an hour and a half, turning east onto Route 401 shortly after Takua Pa. From a rental desk at the airport to the jungle is around two and a half hours.
It is the easiest good drive in southern Thailand and the single best reason to hire a car in Phuket rather than book transfers. Khao Lak works as a day trip. Khao Sok does not, and pretending otherwise is the mistake this article most wants to prevent.
- Phuket airport - Khao LakAbout 82km, 1.5 hours
- Khao Lak - Khao Sok HQAbout 90km, 1.5 hours
- RoadsHighway 402, Highway 4, Route 401
- Best seasonNovember to April
- VehicleCar; scooter fine for Khao Lak only
Getting off Phuket
Highway 402, the Thep Krasattri Road, is Phuket's spine. It runs the length of the island from Phuket Town in the south to the Sarasin Bridge in the north, passing the airport turn-off on the way. If you are picking up a car at the airport you are already three-quarters of the way off the island; if you are staying in Patong, Kata or Karon, add 45 minutes to an hour to cross to it, more in the afternoon.
Phuket's traffic is worse than visitors expect and the island's junctions are unforgiving — see driving in Phuket before your first day at the wheel there.
The Sarasin Bridge carries Highway 402 across the narrow channel between Ban Tha Chatchai on Phuket and Ban Tha Nun in Phang Nga province. The original 1960s bridge now stands alongside the modern crossings as a walkway and viewpoint, and it is a genuinely pleasant place to stop for ten minutes. On the far side you are on the mainland and Highway 4 takes over.
Turn left at the bridge for the best beach nobody uses
Immediately north of Sarasin, the coast road down to Natai beach runs along a long, straight, almost empty strand about twenty minutes from the airport. It is a far better stop than anything on the northern half of Phuket and almost no one arriving from the airport knows it is there.
Highway 4 north to Khao Lak
From the bridge, Highway 4 runs north through Thai Mueang and into Khao Lak. It is a wide, well-surfaced road, largely two lanes with some four-lane sections, set a kilometre or two inland with the sea invisible behind the tree line.
The driving is easy. The things to watch are the standard southern ones: heavily loaded rubber and palm-oil lorries, U-turn bridges instead of right turns, and resort access roads joining the highway without much of a slip lane. Scooters ride on the hard shoulder in both directions.
Khao Lak is not one place. It is a 20km chain of beaches — Bang Niang, Nang Thong, Khuk Khak and others — strung along Highway 4 with the resorts between the road and the sea and the shops and restaurants on the road itself. That layout matters if you are staying there: everything is spread out and walking between beaches is not practical, which is exactly why a hire vehicle is useful.
Behind the town, Khao Lak-Lam Ru national park runs up into forested hills, and the coast road that climbs over the headland at the southern end of the strip has the best view on this section.
The 2004 tsunami struck this coast harder than anywhere else in Thailand. Police boat 813, carried around two kilometres inland by the wave and left where it came to rest, is now a memorial beside the road at Bang Niang, along with the international tsunami museum nearby.
On to Khao Sok
Continue north on Highway 4 through Takua Pa, an old tin-mining town with a small restored Sino-Portuguese old town worth half an hour. A few kilometres beyond it, Highway 4 continues north towards Ranong while Route 401 branches east — this is the crossing road to Surat Thani and the Gulf, and Khao Sok sits on it.
Route 401 climbs immediately into limestone country. It is a good two-lane road with real gradient and a series of sweeping bends, running between karst walls with rainforest on both sides. It is the best driving on this trip by a wide margin and takes about an hour to the park headquarters area.
| Stage | Road | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Phuket airport - Sarasin Bridge | 402 | 20km, 25 minutes |
| Sarasin Bridge - Khao Lak | 4 | 60km, 1 hour |
| Khao Lak - Takua Pa | 4 | 30km, 30 minutes |
| Takua Pa - Khao Sok HQ | 401 | 60km, 1 hour |
| Khao Sok HQ - Cheow Lan pier | 401 then local road | 65km, 1 hour |
Khao Sok village, near the park headquarters, is a strip of guesthouses, treehouse resorts and tour offices. The park itself is one of the oldest rainforests in the world, and the jungle trails start from the headquarters.
Cheow Lan lake is the thing most people actually come for, and it is a further hour east and then north: a reservoir behind the Ratchaprapha dam, filled with limestone islands, with floating raft-house accommodation on it. Getting out to the raft houses means a longtail boat from the dam pier, typically an hour or more. That is why Khao Sok is not a day trip.
Do not attempt Phuket to Cheow Lan lake and back in a day. It is roughly five to six hours of driving plus at least two hours of boat time, and you would be finishing the drive back over Route 401 in the dark on a mountain road used by lorries. Stay a night at Khao Sok village, or two if you want the lake. Driving at night in Thailand explains what you are avoiding.
Does it work as a day trip from Phuket?
Khao Lak: yes. Ninety minutes each way from the airport end of the island, two and a half from Patong. Leave at eight, be on the beach by ten, drive back after an early dinner. It is a comfortable day and a much nicer beach than anything on Phuket's west coast in high season.
Khao Sok: no. Two and a half hours each way to the village, and the lake is another hour beyond that. A day trip gets you a rushed jungle walk and a lot of driving. Two nights is the right answer, and it fits neatly into a longer Andaman coast road trip.
Car or scooter
For Khao Lak, a scooter is workable if you are confident: 80km each way on a main highway with lorries, which is more than most rental agreements in Phuket really intend. Many Phuket shops restrict how far you may take a bike, and the insurance position off the island is not something you want to discover after a crash — see renting a motorbike in Phuket and what rental insurance does not cover.
For Khao Sok, take a car. Route 401 has real gradient, the distances are long, and afternoon rain in the hills is heavy and sudden.
Phuket airport has every major hire company plus a great many local firms, and picking a car up there rather than in a resort saves you the worst of the island's traffic. See airport car rental in Thailand and car hire in Khao Lak, and photograph everything before you drive away — what to photograph before you drive away.
When to go
November to April is the dry season on this coast and the time to come. Calm sea, open boats, clear roads.
May to October is the southwest monsoon and the Andaman side takes the full weight of it, building through the year and peaking around September. Khao Lak's beaches get rough surf and red-flag conditions; the boats to the Similan and Surin islands stop for the season; Route 401 gets heavy afternoon rain with poor visibility and standing water on the bends.
Khao Sok is a rainforest and it rains there in every month. That is rather the point — the wet season is when the waterfalls run and the jungle looks like the photographs — but it does mean the drive over Route 401 can be genuinely wet at any time of year. See the rainy season and flooded roads.
Route 401 continues east from Khao Sok all the way to Surat Thani, which makes this the natural crossing between the Andaman and Gulf coasts. If you are heading for Samui or Phangan, driving Phuket to Surat Thani via Khao Sok is more interesting than any other way across — see the Koh Samui vehicle ferry for what happens at Don Sak.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the drive from Phuket to Khao Lak?
About 82km and an hour and a half from Phuket airport, which sits at the northern end of the island. From Patong, Kata or Karon add up to an hour for the drive north through the island's traffic.
Can I visit Khao Sok as a day trip from Phuket?
Not sensibly. It is around two and a half hours each way to the village and a further hour to the Cheow Lan lake pier, plus boat time. Stay at least one night; two if the lake is the reason you are going.
Do I need to cross a bridge to leave Phuket?
Yes. The Sarasin Bridge carries Highway 402 across the channel to Phang Nga province. It is the only road link and it is free. The old 1960s bridge alongside is now a walkway and viewpoint.
Is Route 401 a difficult road?
No, but it is a proper hill road with sustained gradients and sweeping bends through limestone country, and it carries lorries. It is well surfaced. In heavy rain it demands respect, particularly on the descents.
Can I take a rented scooter from Phuket to Khao Lak?
Physically yes, but check your rental agreement — many Phuket shops restrict how far the bike may go, and 160km of Highway 4 among lorries is a lot to ask of a 125cc machine and its rider. A hire car is cheap enough over a day to make the question academic.
Which beach in Khao Lak?
Nang Thong is the most developed and closest to the shops and restaurants; Bang Niang is next door and has the market and the tsunami memorial; Khuk Khak and the beaches further north are progressively quieter. Natai, just north of the Sarasin Bridge, is emptier than any of them.
This drive is the northern leg of the Andaman coast road trip, which continues to Krabi, Trang and Satun. For the region as a whole see driving in southern Thailand.